Section 3: Police custody

For the application of articles 63,77 and 154, if the requirements of the investigation or inquiry relating to one of the offences falling within the scope of Article 706-73 requires it, a person's police custody may, exceptionally, be extended by two additional twenty-four-hour periods each.

These extensions are authorised, by written and reasoned decision, either, at the request of the public prosecutor, by the liberty and custody judge, or by the investigating judge.

The person in police custody must be presented to the magistrate ruling on the extension prior to this decision. However, the second extension may, exceptionally, be authorised without prior presentation of the person due to the requirements of investigations in progress or to be carried out.

When the first extension is decided, the person in police custody is examined by a doctor appointed by the public prosecutor, the investigating judge or the judicial police officer. The doctor issues a medical certificate stating, among other things, that the person is fit to remain in police custody, which is added to the file. The person is informed by the judicial police officer of the right to request a further medical examination. These medical examinations are automatic. A note of this notification is made in the minutes and signed off by the person concerned; if the person refuses to sign off, this is noted.

By way of derogation from the provisions of the first paragraph, if the foreseeable duration of the investigations still to be carried out at the end of the first forty-eight hours of police custody justifies it, the liberty and custody judge or the investigating judge may decide, in accordance with the procedures set out in the second paragraph, that police custody will be extended for a single additional forty-eight hours.

As an exception to the provisions of the articles 63-4 to 63-4-2, when the person is in police custody for an offence falling within the scope of article 706-73, the lawyer's intervention may be deferred, in consideration of compelling reasons relating to the particular circumstances of the investigation or enquiry, either to enable evidence to be gathered or preserved, or to prevent serious harm to the life, liberty or physical integrity of a person, for a maximum period of forty-eight hours or, in the case of an offence referred to in 3° or 11° of the same Article 706-73, for a maximum period of seventy-two hours.

The postponement of the lawyer's intervention until the end of the twenty-fourth hour is decided by the public prosecutor, ex officio or at the request of the judicial police officer. The postponement of the lawyer's involvement beyond the twenty-fourth hour is decided, within the limits set out in the sixth paragraph, by the liberty and custody judge ruling at the request of the public prosecutor. If the person is held in police custody during the course of a letter rogatory, the postponement is decided by the examining magistrate. In all cases, the magistrate's decision, which is written and reasoned, specifies the period for which the lawyer's intervention is deferred.

When the sixth and seventh paragraphs of this article are applied, the lawyer has, from the moment he is authorised to intervene in police custody, the rights provided for in articles 63-4 and 63-4-1, in the first paragraph of article 63-4-2 and to l'article 63-4-3.

This article is not applicable to the offences provided for in 21° of article 706-73.